Jeff Jackson

SOUTH BEND -- He looks like Jeff Jackson. He sounds like Jeff Jackson. But in some ways, the man who still goes by the name Jeff Jackson is talking a little different game as the Notre Dame hockey team prepares to kick off what Jackson hopes will be a bounce-back season. Still smarting from last year, which started with great expectations but ended with a thud and a 13-17-8 record that included a ninth-place finish in the CCHA, Jackson indicated that there's a new sheriff in town.

Notre Dame hockey coach Jeff Jackson will welcome his former team, coached by former assistant Jim Roque, to South Bend when Lake Superior State comes to the Joyce Center this weekend for ND's final series of 2005. Roque was an assistant at Lake State under Jackson in 1990-91 and '94-95. He most recently assisted Jackson's former mentor, Frank Anzalone, before Anzalone was fired this summer and replaced by Roque. Jackson won two NCAA titles as a head coach at Lake Superior State in '92 and '94, and another as Anzalone's assistant in '88. This is the first time he will face the school, for which as also served as athletic director from 1993-96, as coach of another college team.

Jeff Jackson has often said that his wish was to coach hockey at Notre Dame until he retired. It would seem that's the university's wish as well. The university announced Tuesday that Jackson has agreed to a two-year contract extension, leaving him signed to guide the Irish through the 2012-13 season. "This was fully offered by the university, and it wasn't expected," said Jackson, who was just recently named the winner of the Spencer Penrose Award as Division I coach of the year. "I think it's important to future recruits to know that I'm not going anywhere.

SOUTH BEND -- The No. 3-ranked Notre Dame hockey team held its fourth annual "Drop the Puck" event at the Joyce Center on Monday and its message was clear: "The way last season ended didn't sit well and now we're ready to fire up the hockey season again. " The Irish made a fantastic postseason run and lost in the national championship game to Boston College a season ago after sneaking into the NCAA tournament. While all that was nice, ending the season in a loss made for an awful long offseason, which in turn makes Saturday's season opener at No. 6 Denver all the more important.

With the simple turn of a phrase Saturday night, Notre Dame defenseman Kyle Lawson succinctly summed up the value of preseason hockey rankings. Lawson was talking about ND's just-completed series split with Alabama-Huntsville. UAH shocked then fifth-ranked Notre Dame, 3-2 on Friday, before the Irish scored a 3-1 win the next night. Prior to that season-opening series, InsideCollegeHockey.com rated UAH No. 58 out of 58 Division I programs. "If that's the 58th-ranked team, it's going to be a (heck)

By the time Notre Dame's hockey team leaves campus Monday for Boston, Jeff Jackson will have a decision. But following last Friday's 2-0 shutout of visiting Providence, he wasn't sure who to start in goal against No. 2 Boston. Brad Phillips, the guy who Jackson insists still maintains his hold on the starting job despite an 0-2 record thus far? Tom O'Brien, a former walk-on who played well in a 3-1 win over Alabama-Huntsville on Oct. 10? Or freshman Mike Johnson, who Jackson says wasn't practicing with much confidence, but made 29 saves for the shutout against Providence in his Irish debut?

Stephen Johns found himself in a familiar place at the end of Notre Dame's Mason Cup-clinching victory over Michigan last Sunday. The penalty box. He and teammate Jeff Costello were sent there following a scuffle behind the Irish net with 11 seconds left before the celebration of winning the CCHA's final tournament title began. "Me and Jeff were talking in the penalty box; it's only fitting for me and him to be in the penalty box, to celebrate coming out of it," Johns said.

The first thing Jeff Jackson talks about is the process, always focused on the next game. What he tries to avoid is any discussion of the "Big Picture. " But with only two more days of play left before the Central Collegiate Hockey Association is gone for good, the next game is the big picture. Four teams descend on Detroit this weekend to take part in the final CCHA tournament semis and finals at Joe Louis Arena. Three-seed Ohio State takes on second-seed Notre Dame (23-12-3)

SOUTH BEND -- Success, the way Jeff Jackson diagrams it, is more process than concept. It doesn't just happen in the Notre Dame hockey program. The Irish coach doesn't like to talk in vague generalities. He and his players deal in tangibles, like they did Saturday night in a 4-3 win over Bowling Green. That victory, which earned the second-seeded Irish a ticket to next weekend's CCHA Tournament finals, was just the second step in an easily-understood recipe for postseason success.

The rest of this college hockey season needs to play out before this can be confirmed, but in the moment, Kevin Nugent's first career goal looked like a potential season-saver for Notre Dame. Nugent recorded that goal on Saturday in a 5-2 win over Ferris State. It put the Irish ahead for good, in response to another lead lost by this Notre Dame team, which had lost five games in a row going in. It stopped the bleeding and provided a spark, at least for one night. But will it continue?

At one point early in his offseason training regimen, Notre Dame hockey goalie Steven Summerhays found himself halfway up a mountain, wondering what he'd gotten himself into. The Anchorage, Alaska native was on Flattop, a 3,510-foot mountain that he had decided to scale with his brother, Jeff, and friend, Tyler Currier, a forward for Alaska-Anchorage. For a goalie not quite used to the rigorous cardio workout on which he was embarking, halfway was as far as he got that day. "There's a part where you have to go up these stairs, and it's just miserable," Summerhays said.

Notre Dame hockey coach Jeff Jackson felt a bad call cost his team at least a tie last Friday night against North Dakota, and he expressed his frustration with the Central Collegiate Hockey Association officiating crew to the media afterward. As a result, the CCHA issued a response on Tuesday: a fine for an undisclosed amount and public reprimand for Jackson. The play that raised Jackson's ire was an apparent goal by Anders Lee with three minutes to play and the Irish trailing 2-1. The goal was waved off by referee Keith Sergott, who blew his whistle and ruled the puck had been frozen by North Dakota goalie Clarke Saunders before Lee poked it into the net. After the game, Jackson said it was, "just an awful call," among other things.

A glance at Notre Dame's hockey statistics through six games shows that not a single Irish player has scored more than two goals. That might not seem encouraging, but a closer look shows that 11 different players have notched a goal, which means that ND has some scoring punch further down the lineup than the familiar names at the top of the list, Anders Lee and T.J. Tynan. And that's great news for head coach Jeff Jackson. “A lot of guys that we hoped would take a step after an off season last year have, so far,” Jackson said.

SOUTH BEND ---- Way back on Nov. 25, Notre Dame's hockey team had just pushed its unbeaten string to 11 straight games to move to 10-2-3. Considering the Irish had reached the Frozen Four the previous season, everything seemed right on track. They were still 13-6-3 on Jan. 7 after an impressive road win over then-No. 3 Minnesota, for their third win in a row. That came on the heels of a four-game losing streak, but the Irish ship seemed to have been righted. Looking back, Irish coach Jeff Jackson believed the turning point on a season that would end with a 19-18-3 record and no NCAA bid occurred the next game.

SOUTH BEND ---- With a 3-7 record over its last 10 games and only four games remaining in the regular season, the No. 13-ranked Notre Dame hockey team knows it clearly is put-up or shut-up time. Throw in the fact that the Irish currently sit at No. 18 in the PairWise rankings which try to project NCAA selections, and that the tourney takes only 16 teams and there is almost no margin for error. A mysterious season that has seen the Irish hold the No. 1 national ranking at the start, and compile wins over the current top-five ranked teams, finds them in a tie for seventh place in the wild Central Collegiate Hockey Association race with Miami, whom they play this weekend, and Northern Michigan.